Red Book Gets a Glow Up

The all-new, completely reimagined 2026 A Guide Book of United States Coins (the “Red Book”) will be available in all major retail outlets starting April 8. The 79th edition features a complete redesign from cover to cover, a larger 6- x 9-inch format, more than 12,000 listings, updated market values in up to nine grades using Collector’s Price Guide (CPG®) Retail pricing, GSID^SM catalog numbers, updated research, and the latest mint data.

Improvements & New Features

Collectors will notice several key interior enhancements over the previous year’s edition. Circulation and proof-strike charts have been separated, and type-coin value charts have been added to each coin type, where applicable. The “Private and Territorial Gold” chapter has more than doubled, while the “Commemoratives” chapter was updated to better align with market conventions. These coins are now grouped by denomination and listed by names collectors know them by.

Other additions include fun-fact spotlights, a regular and fully illustrated case study in the “Grading U.S. Coins” section (this edition’s focus: Morgan dollars), and the “Collector’s Notebook,” which covers a changing array of current issues in the hobby (this edition’s subject: misinformation in numismatics).

How to Purchase

All four formats (hardcover, softcover, spiral-bound, and large spiral-bound) can be purchased through Whitman’s website, Amazon, bookstores, and other retailers on April 8. Pre-orders are available now. Additionally, a limited number of copies will be available for sale at the Whitman Expos Spring Show, March 27-29, in Baltimore, Maryland. Jeff Garrett and John Feigenbaum, Red Book editors and cohosts of the Red Book Podcast, will be available Friday at 11 a.m. EST for a special book signing session.

A version of this article appears in the May 2025 issue of The Numismatist (money.org).